Reds are too hot for Sunderland youths

Sunderland Under-18s suffered a heavy 7-0 defeat at the hands of a good Man Utd side in the F.A. Premier Youth game at the Academy on Saturday, writes Neville Pilkington.

Sunderlandshouldhavehad a stonewall penalty when Conner Slack was brought down, but no spot kick was awarded.

However, it was two defensive errors which gifted the Reds two goals.

Ten minutes after the restart, Sunderland’s Cole Kiernan was stretchered off with what looked like a bad ankle injury.

Manchester’s Traore then got his second goal, but Sunderland’s misfortune was then compounded when Tom Smith was given a straight red card for what appeared to be an innocuous tackle.

The ten man Sunderland team was then repeatedly carved open as United took full advantage and added further goals by McCann (59), Laird (76) Boghail-Mello(81) and another from Greenwood one minute from time.

Sunderland’s assistant coach Stuart Brightwell reflected afterwards “It was never a 7-0. Two key decisions - the blatant penalty that was not given and the sending off transformed the game. It was not the disaster it appears”.

Meanwhile on Friday night, Sunderland U23s were beaten 3-0 by Manchester United.

The hosts began brightly, and Sunderland found themselves a goal down after five minutes as Tahith Chong rifled home.

United then had George Tanner sent-off following a foul on Connelly, but the Black Cats failed to make their advantage count. DJ Buffong and Chong completed the scoring for United.